Description
Book SynopsisFocuses on the history of the involvement of African-Americans in the early recording industry. This book charts the roles black artists played in the period leading up to the Jazz Age. It identifies key black artists who recorded commercially in a wide range of genres and provides biographies of some forty of these audio pioneers.
Trade ReviewWinner of an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, 2005. Winner of the ARSC Award for Best Research in General History of Recorded Sound, 2005. Winner of the Irving Lowens Award, given by the Society for American Music for the best work published in 2004 in the field of American music. Tim Brooks received the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Lifetime Achievement Award, 2004.
"An act of cultural reclamation--the great lost heroes of black performance."--
New York Times"Brooks brings both passion and compassion to the story of the black pioneers who worked as performers and entrepreneurs in the nascent U.S. recording industry."--
Business History Review"The authors are ardent scholars . . . the thorough bibliography demonstrates the scope and intensity of the research. This is a welcome contribution to the literature on the African American story, primarily in music but in other disciplines as well."--
Choice"
Lost Sounds is a thrilling book; it is rare to encounter a work of this length that supplies so much new information, causing us to reevaluate and reinterpret our understanding of American music and social history."--
Current Musicology"A monumental achievement in research and sheds light on overlooked aspects of turn-of-the-century popular culture."--
Technology and Culture"Tim Brooks has drawn on a staggering array of primary sources to create this wonderful compendium of information.
Lost Sounds makes a significant contribution to the field."--Norm Cohen, author of
Traditional Anglo-American Folk Music: An Annotated Discography of Published Recordings"Brooks has uncovered a wealth of fascinating detail about the record business, its artists, and the range of music they recorded 100 years ago. This engaging work of thorough scholarship is essential reading for anyone interested in the birth of commercial recording and African American music in the early part of the 20th century."--Samuel Brylawski, Head, Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress
